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HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Jan. 4) – Linda Tatreau's son came face to face with the much-feared great white shark in Hawaii.

While most mothers would have panicked about their son's weekend adventures, Tatreau said she was excited and sorry she missed the trip. Tatreau, a marine biology teacher in Guam, said her son, 39-year-old son Jimmy Hall, called her this weekend about his encounter with an almost 20-foot fish. His story has caught the attention of national media, newspapers like the Honolulu Advertiser and networks like CNN and MSNBC has featured his encounter. He also is being featured in the Today Show.

"This is like the thrill of a lifetime. I am still so excited and I wasn't even there. Truly, since his call it jumps into my mind every 30 minutes," Tatreau, a resident of Ipan, said. For Tatreau, her son's adventures were also a great addition to the unit on sharks she recently finished teaching to her five classes at George...

The National Security Advisory Committee (NSAC) gave the trio marching orders after a crisis meeting on Friday.

A statement released by Police Commissioner and acting committee chairman Sam Inguba yesterday indicated that the Government has given the Bougainville Autonomous Government (ABG) the assignment to bring in the other five Fijians still on the island.

Isaiah Seruvatu Baro, Fereti Rokodi, and Semi Baroi, who were detained in Port Moresby after they flew to the city in November, will be deported immediately.

The men — former members of Fiji army’s elite counter revolutionary warfare unit (CRW) — were allegedly giving military training to supporters of pyramid scheme principal Noah Musingku.

SUVA, Fiji (Fijilive, Jan. 2) – A police operation to root out criminals and bad drivers in Fiji has resulted in the arrest of 2,750 drivers for offences ranging from speeding, careless and drunk driving.

As well police conducted 1,468 breathalyzer tests during the busy festive season.

On the crime front, officers also arrested one person for murder and 32 for robbery with violence. As well 14 people were arrested for unlawful use of a motor vehicle, 46 for being in possession of dangerous drugs, 77 for house breaking and 230 for assault.

Corporal Weicavu cautioned New Year revelers to observe road rules and act responsibly during the festive season.

Frabelle Fishing Corporation, a big tuna company with operations based in the Philippines, told Mindanao News Agency that they would establish a tuna factory in Morobe Province.

The company is reportedly fast-tracking the construction of a cannery plant in Lae City, Morobe province and they have already built a warehouse and cold storage facilities in Papua New Guinea some years back.

[PIR editor’s note: Lae city in Morobe province is located on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea’s mainland peninsula.]

Senior vice president, Augusto Natividad told Miindanao News Agency that their subsidiary in Papua New Guinea, Frabelle (PNG) Ltd planned to produce cooked tuna loins before the end of 2005 in its PGK4.8 million [US$1.6 million] processing plant...

Local biscuit maker and chief exporter, Flour Mills of Fiji confirmed this yesterday.

The move is seen by the company as just another way by the Vanuatu Government to try and restrict the sale of Fiji biscuits in the fellow Melanesian Spearhead Group member nation.

[PIR editor’s note: The Melanesian Spearhead Group comprises the four Melanesian states of Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji. The Group signed the region’s Preferential Trade Agreement in 1994 - a sub-regional trade treaty established to foster and accelerate economic development through trade relations.]

"This 50 per cent import duty will make our biscuits very expensive and uncompetitive in Vanuatu," Flour Mills of Fiji group chairman Hari Punja said. "The Government of Vanuatu is obviously playing games with Fiji.

Principal Officer Sakenasa Varea says the Elections Office has requested district officers to send their teams out again to register them.

"It seems the number of Indians who are eligible to vote in the 2006 is not as high as it should be in the Western Division and parts of the Southern Division so that is something that we are trying to improve the low figures that we are getting," he said. "We are very very impressed with the work our enumerators are doing, through the figures we are getting, the number of people now being registered but one of the main problems is the Indian voters."

Varea says the Elections Office has an obligation to ensure all potential voters are registered.

"In the Western Division, we had our Indian team out there and when they went to places like Korovuto, Mulomulo and...

SUVA, Fiji (Jan. 3) – The Fiji Police Force should explain why it is taking long to investigate the main financiers of the May 19, 2000, coup. Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes should now come out with the truth.

Is it because there is lack money or evidence, which is always the excuse given by police?

If not, could it be the fact that certain senior police officers were involved in the coup and are now doing almost anything to cover them up.

Key witnesses Maciu Navakasuasua and Josaia Waqabaca have spoken out publicly about their involvement. The men have already served their time in jail and now they are determined to see that the main instigators should also face the full brunt of the law.

Former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has given police a list of people who were supporting the coup through financial means.

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Jan. 4) – Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has expressed a deep sense of loss and extreme sadness at the passing of former Prime Minister Sir William Skate.

The Prime Minister cut short his holiday after he heard the tragic news and is arranging to return to the country.

Sir Michael had written to Lady Rarua Skate, widow of the late Sir William Skate, expressing "a deep sense of loss and extreme sadness".

"The late Sir William has contributed much to the political development of Papua New Guinea and will leave behind a huge vacuum in our legislature that will be hard to fill," Sir Michael said.

"His trademark ‘straight shooting’ frankness during parliamentary debates on issues of public importance underlies his innate desire to see concrete actions taken to resolve problems and his distaste for procrastination," he wrote.

SAIPAN, CNMI (Pacific Daily News, Jan. 5) – All-expenses-paid trips to Saipan that benefited a member of the U.S. Congress and a congressional staffer are mentioned in a court document outlining the basis for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty plea in a case alleging conspiracy to buy influence in the nation's capital.

Beginning as early as January 2000, Abramoff and others "engaged in a course of conduct through which one or both of them offered and provided a stream of things of value to public officials in exchange for a series of official acts and influence," according to the document called factual basis for his plea.

Things offered in connection with what the document called "corruption of public officials" included foreign and domestic travel, golf fees, frequent meals, entertainment, election support of candidates for government office, employment for relatives of officials and campaign contributions.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.